03.17.09
9 p.m. CDT Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
STATUS REPORT: STS-119-05
STS-119 MCC STATUS REPORT #05
The space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space
Station at 4:20 p.m. CDT, delivering the final truss segment and pair
of U.S. solar arrays and a new crew member to take up residence
aboard the growing orbital scientific complex.
Discovery Commander Lee Archambault guided the shuttle to a docking as
the two spacecraft flew 220 miles above Western Australia. Before
closing the final 600 feet to the station, Archambault commanded
Discovery through a “backflip” allowing the station’s Expedition 18
Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Sandy Magnus to take photos
that imagery experts will review to assess the health of Discovery’s
heat shield.
The shuttle and station crews opened hatches and greeted one another
at 6:09 p.m., beginning more than a week of joint operations between
the two crews.
One of the first major tasks of the crews was to swap station crew
member Magnus for Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. The official swap
occurred when a specially fitted seat liner was installed in the
Soyuz crew vehicle. That swap at 9 p.m. signified the official
designation change making Wakata an Expedition 18 flight engineer and
Magnus a shuttle mission specialist.
The mission’s main objective Thursday will be to install the 31,000
pound, 45-foot-long truss segment known as S6 and solar array pair to
the far starboard end of the truss during the first spacewalk planned
by Mission Specialists Steve Swanson and Ricky Arnold.
Throughout the joint mission, transfer of shuttle middeck items to the
station will take place, including a replacement Distillation
Assembly for the urine recycler.
The station crew is scheduled to go to bed about 11 p.m. and the
shuttle crew 30 minutes later just after 11:30 p.m. Wake up Wednesday
is scheduled for 7:43 a.m.
Prime business for the crews Wednesday will be to lift the truss
segment out of Discovery’s payload bay with the shuttle robot arm and
hand it off to the station’s mechanical arm for an overnight stay
before Thursday’s permanent installation on the station.
The next shuttle status report will be issued after crew wake, or
earlier if events warrant.
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